PAC is back

PAC, a parents' group that advocates for children with special needs, was fading away, but fresh leadership has brought it back.

Sean McGee, Townsman correspondent

Two years ago, as the children of the leaders of the Wellesley Parent Advisory Council for children with special needs began graduating and leaving their individualized education plans and the Wellesley school system behind, the group began to fade away because no one immediately stepped in to take over leadership.

That changed recently, when Robin Steinberg and Jeanine Brennan, fairly new to Wellesley, met and decided to become the co-chairmen of PAC.

In fact, the program, known as the Apple Project, is mandated by Massachusetts state law, which requires one such group in each district statewide. The essential function of the group is to serve as a liaison between the parents of children with special needs and the educators and administrators in the school system. “Our focus is to streamline communication between the [Wellesley school system administration] and the parents of students [in the system] with special needs,” said Robin Steinberg.

At the moment, there are more than 75 families on the Wellesley organization’s official list, although Steinberg noted that many more families have attended the meetings, but haven’t placed themselves on the contact list.

“I’m thrilled it exists,” said the PAC’s corresponding secretary, Susan Zelenko, “because [my family was] new to Wellesley and with our daughter’s life-threatening illness it could be lonely and frightening at times. We wished someone else was out there who was also dealing with a similar situation, a partner and a friend,” and the PAC provided that.

Although the organization has just “gotten up and running again” this past summer, according to Steinberg, it is already making a positive impact. “We really want to make sure there’s a dialogue between parents and the school system,” she said. And in effort to do so, the concerned parents in the PAC have organized a meeting in January with Superintendent Bella Wong and the supervisor of the high school building project, Susan Littlefield, to discuss the configuration of the building, ask questions and suggest modifications. These changes would aid the students already in IEPs, not only such things as ramps and other accommodations for physically disabled students, but also other additions such as quiet rooms for children who have ADD or ADHD, or those who simply can become over- stimulated.

“There’s [already] been such a positive response from both Bella Wong and Ellen Honeyman [director of Student Services], they’ve been really encouraging and supportive,” Steinberg said.

The PAC is also working to establish a lecture series by experts in the field of children disabilities and learning disorders, as well as a resource library for parents, including books, articles and reports by doctors and therapists that study and work in the field.

Another key role the PAC will take is to help Bella Wong in the search for a permanent director of Student Services. (Honeyman is the interim director for this school year.) A parent networking committee was also recently created to plan and host social events within the group, the first one being today.

So far, said Steinberg, “[everything the PAC has been involved in] has been great,” and it looks to continue that way as the group gains momentum.